Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to monitoring online access information and, more particularly, to sending alerts to users over online access of a resource.
Related Art
Online transactions are becoming more and more prevalent, with an ever-increasing number of online entities that may or may not have a physical real world counterpart. Furthermore, the services offered by these online entities have been improving as well. The popularity of online transactions is partially attributable to the ease and convenience of making a transaction online instead of at a physical location. Unfortunately, the popularity of online transactions has also led to an increase in online fraud activities. For example, a person may illegally obtain access to a victim's online account(s), and may attempt to purchase goods from the victim's account(s). The presence of fraudulent online activities underscores the need for careful and consistent monitoring of users' online activities, including access to these accounts. This is traditionally performed by both service providers (who look for unusual activity) and users (who detect transactions they did not perform.) This disclosure focuses on the latter. Conventional methods of monitoring online activities may be too technically complex for an average user. As such, the average user may become confused or flustered and may abandon any attempt to monitor online activities altogether.
Therefore, while existing online activity monitoring mechanisms have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in every aspect. It would be advantageous to offer an online activity monitoring mechanism that is simple and intuitive for the average user.